Talkoo workshop BLOG

So we made it! After a bit of stress to get on time at our meeting at the Walvis, the talkoonization of Brussels city has started. During our short presentation in the bar, the waitress became quite unexpectedly nervous, so we had to run off in order to preserve our favourite canteen…

Then, we took Dansaert street until St-Gerry - St-Goriks for an improvised jam session with the cello player inside the ancient market. After some interaction with the public, we took the direction of the tram at the Bourse-Beurs for an underground presentation. We decided then to have a look at the famous Belgian opera, La Monnaie - De Munt, in order to hear how could our instruments sound like in the temple of classical music.

Afterwards, we continued our touristic visit, passing by the Gallerie de la Reine - Koningsgallerij, where we played in the Tropismes library for the happiness of Sunday books readers; the Grand Place - Grote Markt, for tourists amazement; and the Mannekepis, for the good of chocolate and snails business.

Of course, after a few hours of working, our electronic instruments started to present some defaults or battery problems, but we can say that this mission was a success. The city has been Talkoonized!

The sound devices that have been build during this workshop week are all standalone. It means that they work as independent objects without having to be connected to a computer (wireless or not).

The sound files and the interactive aspects have been programmed in the Arduino software and uploaded to the board which contains then the software part. The interaction with the sound file(s) can then be made with potentiometers, photoresistors, buttons, piezo’s, infra-red sensors, accelerometers, lemons (oscillator)…

To get the sound files we wanted into the Arduino board, we converted the .wav into a 1-bit file that can also be uploaded on the board. Here, you will find some examples of our creations: